The Road to Resilience: Failure, Recovery, and Recovery Again

It would be an understatement to suggest that leaders face significant challenges in today’s complex world. Consider the tasks of balancing a strategic focus on mission and vision, ensuring organizational growth, and staying abreast of the latest industry trends. Additionally, leaders must navigate change, make sound decisions, and nurture organizational environments marked by engagement and innovation.

And sometimes we fail.

Failure has a unique status in American society and the human psyche. From an early age, we are reminded of the importance of succeeding and not failing. We dreaded the feared F on a paper when we were in school. We are conditioned not to accept failure but to succeed at all costs. In the workplace, failure is often accompanied by an admonishment not to let it happen again, followed by a written report ensuring corrective action. Harvard professor Amy Edmondson famously asks leaders to consider how many failures in their organizations are truly blameworthy compared to failures that are simply treated as blameworthy. Unfortunately, we excel in the latter. Indeed, our obsession with failure is significant…

 

In the age of burnout, how companies keep their employees coming back

Patricia Acensi-Ferré learned that she had breast cancer on Valentine’s Day.

It was 2013, and she was a 35-year old new mom caring for a baby at the tail end of her maternity leave. Her situation was serious. But she decided to fight it with humor: She named her tumor “Roberto” and, when her hair started falling out, she named one of her wigs “Ginger.” She survived a 15-month-long treatment that grew to involve surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Today, she is cancer-free.

With the date of her return set for March 2014, though, Acensi-Ferré received another blow: While she was away, her job had been eliminated. Before her cancer, she had worked for about 15 years in the French government. In accordance with French law, Acensi-Ferré was offered another project—but it was unrelated to her interests and experience…